On Friday, June 4th, Linden Lab announced that the company’s CEO, Ebbe Altberg had passed away. Across the grid and blogsphere, tributes and obituaries have been offered in the wake of the news.
Ebbe Altberg memorial
Now, for those who wish to commemorate Ebbe’s time with the Lab and pay respects to his memory in-world, a memorial has been created on – appropriately – Altberg region in Bellisseria.
Designed by the Moles of the LDPW, the region features a single island that is home to the memorial. Surrounded by fir trees offering a hint of Scandinavia, with water falling into a pond that feeds flowers, the memorial stands as a tall bronze figure of Ebbe, with a photo of him and the text of announcement of his passing located at the base of the plinth.
Candles are also to be found at the base of the statue, which will light on being touched, and benches are available for those who wish to sit and remember Ebbe and his time at the Lab.
The island is a gentle, quiet place; a place one cannot help but feel Ebbe himself would appreciate. A place where contemplation and reflection can be embraced.
So, for all those who do wish to pay their respects to Ebbe in-world, I can think of no better place in which to do so.
The base of the statue includes the test of the announcement of Ebbe’s passing (l), while the memorial has been drawing a steady stream of visitors (r)
With thanks to the Moles for creating the memorial.
Note: as Tish Coronet has pointed out via the SL Feeds, be sure to look down on the memorial from overhead – the ground before Ebbe’s has been set memorial has actually been set out to form the Second Life Hand logo, the statue replacing the eye.
Friday brought the sad news that Ebbe Altberg, the CEO of Linden Research Inc., had passed away. And while it is perhaps too soon to be thinking about things as people are still coming to terms with the news, polls, comments and opinions have nevertheless already started circulating as to the kind of CEO the company should now look towards.
Chief among the opinions being expressed is that it should be “someone who has been in Second Life for a good amount of time and has plenty of experience.” But is this accurate?
Ebbe Altberg: perhaps linden Lab’s most successful CEO. Souce: Linden Lab
As I noted in my own tribute to Ebbe, while he did come to Linden Lab with a good degree of foreknowledge – his son Aleks had been very successful with the Teen Grid before transitioning to the Main grid, and Ebbe himself was a close friend of Jed Smith, the former chairman of the Lab’s board; as he readily admitted himself, he was not in any way either a long-term user of the platform or who had “plenty of experience” with it prior to joining the company.
And yet, as we’ve all noted over the pass several days since the news broke, Ebbe has been without a doubt, the most popular of CEOs at the Lab among users. His tenure was by no means perfect, but overall his presence strengthened both company and principal product enormously – up to and including spinning-off a revenue-generating subsidiary that in time might help both, in the form of Tilia Pay.
Thus, I would suggest that the qualities needs for CEO are not so much any deep / long-term exposure to or involvement in Second Life, but rather the qualities and skills needed to manage and lead a company and leverage the strengths inherent in its management team and staff. In this, I would say that long-time friend and commentator R.( R. Dismantled) has summed up the requirements of any incoming CEO the best:
Not a celebrity, but a manager of managers, making the good and difficult decisions. And not just talk and hype and making Second Life something it isn’t, but making it better…
… I hope that the next person entrusted to manage the managers of our weird little social soap bubble will be cut from the same cloth.
– R. (R. Dismantled) commenting on this blog
From the outset, Ebbe was “a manager of managers”. He trusted those reporting into him to run their departments in a manner that would best support the company, its core product and its users. At the same time, he was prepared to make the necessary hard choices to swing the company back onto a more solid course of product development – shutting down the Creatorverse, dio and Versu projects almost immediately (and later allowing the creators of Versu to spin it off into its own platform), winding down work on Patterns and selling Desura, whilst allowing Blocksworld to serve its community through until mid-2020. And – while it may not have entirely worked out as hoped – he set the company on paths that might seen the development of additional revenue-generating opportunities, through both the aforementioned Tilia Pay and through the development of Sansar.
Ebbe Linden, aka Ebbe Altberg. Credit; Strawberry Singh
There’s also the fact that the CEO’s brief is a broad one, encompassing skills and abilities far beyond general team leadership and product understanding.
While such skills can be acquired from within organisation, they do make promotion from within potentially more difficult even when – from an outside perspective, at least – there may appear to be “obvious” candidates, simply because they do take time to acquire and effectively wield.
As such, the “hire from without / promote from within” is a difficult path to tread – with the latter aspect further compounded by the fact that even if there are potential candidates within the organisation that could transition and acquire the skills of a CEO over time – they may not actually want to do so, simply because it means they must relinquish aspects of their work they actually enjoy the most.
In the specific case of Linden Research, things are perhaps further compounded by the fact that Ebbe Altberg was somewhat unique in his background. This spanned running large and small corporate entities, presenting him with the broadest base of skillsets, and was coupled with his own “left-brain / right brain” balance of technical and creative skills and knowledge that – even without a long-standing involvement in Second life – provided him with a solid foundation for quickly understanding the complexities of the platform and its communities of users with their needs once he was at his desk at the Lab.
There is also another factor to consider here: does the Lab actually need someone to take over directly as CEO?
Since the acquisition process closed-off at the end of 2020, incoming investor Brad Oberwager has been conspicuous in the degree to which he has been hands-on in his role as Executive Chair within the management team, as reported by the likes of Grumipty, Brett and Patch Linden at various in-world events. Mr. Oberwagerf has also brought long-term business partner/colleague Cammy Bergren into the LL fold as the company’s Chief of Staff.
Linden Lab’s Chief of Staff, Cammy Bergren (centre left) and Board member / Executive Chairman, Brad Oberwager (centre right) and their respective avatars. Both appear to have been very much at the helm of Linden Lab since Mr. Oberwager and his fellow investors acquired the company at the end of 2020.
Between them, they have considerable experience in running corporate entities, and as such are well-placed to steer Linden Lab through the next several months without the need for any immediate appointment from without or within, giving staff more time to deal with the loss of Ebbe whilst ensuring both the company and Second Life adjust and move forward under a broader management umbrella (I exclude Tilia Pay here as that entity appears to be almost entirely self-managing).
So, with all that being said, right now it is far too early to be considering “what ifs” and “who mights” in terms of the role of CEO at the Lab. Ebbe’s legacy is huge and something that we should all spend more time reflecting upon – and we should allow Linden Lab space to reflect on the loss of a man they knew better than the rest of us, rather than speculating on “who should be next”.
On Friday, June 4th, Linden Lab broke the news that the company’s CEO, Ebbe Altberg had passed away.
The post, from Patch Linden, reads in part:
Second Life found new highs in 2020 between a worldwide pandemic taking grip, through the times of a tumultuous leadership change in the United States, and during movements of civil changes that will forever live in history books. Second Life provides many with the comfort of a normal that continues to exist for all of us, where many use it to escape real life pressures, stressors and day to day challenges. In Second Life we can be our ideal, our best, celebrate all that is good across the world together. Sadly we have also seen some people go, and they will never be forgotten as they touched us, gave us their best from their hearts, minds and souls – this thing called real life sometimes knocks on our door and makes a call.
As I am here before you today, it is with profound sadness that I share with you Ebbe passed away yesterday evening restfully and surrounded by the love of his family.
This is deeply sad news for all of those who knew or had contact with Ebbe during his seven-year tenure at LL. His arrival at Linden Lab the start of February 2014 came at a time when user / Lab relationships were at a particularly low state, and his arrival could not have been more timely.
From the outset, it was clear that he had more than a passing knowledge of the platform – his son, Aleks, had been keenly involved on the Teen Grid, up to and including starting his own business, and Ebbe himself was a long-time friend of former Linden Lab board member Jed Smith (who had actually tried to get Ebbe to join the company once before).
Referring to himself as a “left-brain / right brain kind of person” – he graduated Middlebury College (Vermont USA) with a degree in Fine Arts with a concentration in Computer Applications, it is fair to say he not merely was aware of the potential of Second Life – he was positively enthusiastic about it, technically and creatively.
Ebbe Linden (Ebbe Altberg) as he appeared at one of his first official engagements with users after joining Linden Lab, February 19th, 2014.
From the outset, he was openly and warmly communicative with the platform’s user base, getting in-world as often as he could to meet people either casually or via small and large events – such as an early “fireside chat” a handful of us were invited to attend just a handful of days after his official arrival at the Lab, or via larger town hall style meetings, and appearances at events such as VWBPE, the SLB celebrations the Lab Chat sessions and their successor, Lab Gab, and more.
His openness and honesty did much to renew users’ faith in Second Life – but occasionally carried something of a price. When he popped-up at a Third-Party Viewer Developer meeting in June 2014 and mentioned in passing that the Lab were working on a new platform (which we would come to know as Sansar), the resultant conniptions among users was very palpable (and, being honest, partially fuelled by some hasty and somewhat inaccurate tweeting of his comments sans proper context) – which would require numerous repeats by both Ebbe and other at the Lab that the new platform did not mean “the end” for Second Life, but the company was committed to both.
In this latter regard, he fully supported the team that came together under Oz Linden to continue to build-out and improve SL and make it more accessible to people, whilst always stepping forward and facing the ire of users over perceived wrong-doings and working to further build / re-build confidence in company and product.
Nor was his enthusiasm constrained to platform and users – he faced the media head-on on numerous occasions in the US and international, proud to talk-up Second Life, Linden Lab, virtual worlds and the potential of VR, a technology to which he became an ardent convert. He also had the foresight to spin-out the lab’s expertise in virtual tokens into a subsidiary, Tilia Pay, presenting linden Lab with a further means of generating business for itself.
Ebbe Latberg (l) with entrepreneur Ken Bretschneider and Sophie Charara (Wired UK) discussing virtual environments at the December 2015 Web Summit, Dublin
Prior to joining Linden Lab, his career have been wide-ranging, encompassing both major global corporations such as Yahoo and Microsoft, much of which I covered in a brief profile I was able to put together on him just appear he officially joined LL, and I was pleased to note that he and I had shared interests in both Formula 1 racing and space exploration, which allow for some early conversations between us.
The precise cause of Ebbe’s passing has not been made public, but it was clear to many through various sources that he appeared to be affected by a long-term illness, and over the last 12 months in particular, his presence had been somewhat conspicuous by its absence (I believe that perhaps his last public appearance as CEO was the occasion of Oz Linden’s retirement earlier in 2021).
However, it is clear that illness did not in any way blunt his determination to ensure Linden Lab and Second Life in a much stronger and better position than when he joined the company – a determination that included the hard choice of letting go of Sansar, and guiding the company through the difficult waters of acquisition and bringing into the fold investors who have the vision and willingness to move both company and platform forward.
Given this, and despite the shadow cast by the announcement of his passing, I’ve little doubt that he could be justifiably proud of all that he achieved at Linden Research Inc., and because of his dedication and enthusiasm, both the platform and the company are much better and stronger today than perhaps they’ve ever been.
My deepest and sincerest condolences to Ebbe’s family and all at Linden Lab at this time. I can honestly say that for all of us who have been invested in Second Life, he was more than just a CEO, he was a fellow resident an adventurer on the virtual frontier. He shall be greatly missed.
A still from the video now featured on the further revised secondlife.com splash screen
Watching the secondlife.com splash screen is becoming something of a past-time of late. Last week I noted that the screen had been tweaked after an update in April, with an enlarged still from the broadcast advert by Levitate Media and a revised menu (Secondlife.com splash screen gets a further tweak).
It now appears the April update and the tweak last week might be part of a rotating set of splash screens being tried out – as I noted on May 17th in an update to that article, the version of the page I referenced in that article had reverted to it’s April format.
This week, the page has been further revised – as those logging out and back in may have noticed. The latest change retains the old format of menu up in the top right corner of the screen, but the still image has been replaced by a video loop that mixes footage from the Levitate Media video with video footage shot within Second Life.
Running to 1 minute and 12 seconds, the video may well be the full Leverage Media advert, just sans music or other accompaniment – previously, we’ve only been teased with behind-the-scenes clips of the ad.
Certainly, the inter-cutting of live and Second Life footage comes together very well, although some might critique it for being somewhat vague on specifics about Second Life or that it misses some of the core aspects of the platform – such as the creative elements. However, I’d suggest that as far as enticing interest goes, such critiques are misplaced: the video offers a series of images designed to capture attention, pique curiosity, and entice people to sign-up, rather than reveal all there is to Second Life.
That said, as one scrolls down the page, it would perhaps be nice to see something a little more dynamic when it comes to expanding on what Second Life is – frankly the three selections are vague; and while things like remote meetings in the age of the pandemic have been important to the Lab and SL’s use, it would nevertheless be good to see a broad cassavas of the kind of interests that have tended to attract and retain the wider Second Life user base.
Anyway, click the Play button below and check the video for yourself. Again, note that as it is a hero screen version, it is without sound.
The small but noticeable update to the secondlife.com splash screen menu that appears to have been recently rolled out
Update May 17th: It appears LL may either have released a change to the splash screen and have rolled it back, or are experimenting with ideas. On Monday, May 17th, the splash screen had reverted back to the April update.
Back in April Linden Lab slipped out a revamp to the secondlife.com home page.
At the time, it came in for a very mixed response, featuring as it does an actress in elven-like make-up rather than the more usual avatar.
The image used was actually a still from the broadcast quality advert Levitate Media produced on behalf of Linden Lab in August 2020, and which was previewed in December 2020, a point that seemed lost on at least some of those who responded negatively to splash screen re-vamp.
The re-vamp also brought the secondlife.com property more into line with other Second Life properties such as the enterprise micro-site, in that scrolling down the page reveals further information on Second Life under a trio of headings.
The secondlife.com splash screen image as seen with the April re-vamp, inset, the scene of the Second Life advert from which the image was taken, being filmed by Levitate Media in August 2020.
The latest update – seen at the top of this article – was quietly rolled-out during the week. It now features an enlarged version of the still from the Levitate Media video and a re-worked menu. Gone are the options found in the top right corner of the screen, to be replaced by the more “modern” three-bar menu icon favoured by website designers and which offers a mobile device friendly solution to accessing menus. The rest of the page remains unchanged from the April 2021 update.
To be honest, I liked the April update, and the upset over the use of a live model seemed a little overblown to me; as I’ve said elsewhere, Second Life is supposedly “your world, your imagination”, so why not someone dreaming about being Galadriel or somesuch? That said, the image in this latest version is – to me – a little too large and in-you-face and as a result looses a lot of the mystery / enticement it presented in the April version of the page; better, perhaps to have left it untouched and simply re-work the menu access.
As it is, the latest update is a small tweak, and presumably part of the Lab’s preparations for the deployment of revamped new user on-boarding process and new user experience. It also makes the secondlife.com splash screen a little more mobile device friendly (although the rest of the web pages have a long way to in that respect).
Note:you need need to be logged-out of secondlife.com in order to see these changes.
Robin (Sojourner) Wood November 24th, 1953 – April 19th, 2021
It is with a heavy heart that we must report that Robin (Sojourner) Wood passed away after an extended struggle with cancer (phyllodes tumours). She will be remembered for a long history of artwork and instruction.
With these words, Marianne McCann broke the news that one of Second Life’s long-time residents, Robin Sojourner – Robin Wood in the physical world – had passed away.
Robin was, without a doubt, one of the kindest, warmest and most giving hearts in all of Second Life; she never failed to have time for anyone who needed it. Whether it was simple conversation, the need for support, advice on creativity, assistance with solving a problem, or anything else, Robin would never fail to assist. A talented creator both inside and outside of the platform, she always had encouragement and advice for those wishing to express themselves creatively in-world by offering easy-to-follow tutorials via her website and You Tube, as well as providing both practical advice and a range of products and free resources via Livingtree island, her Second life home.
Then an now: Robin’s original 1LI prim chair and her recent mesh 1 LI creation: a stool draped with one of her quilt designs. Credit: Bernard Drax
A former teacher, Robin always enjoyed being creative, so much so that during her career she became a noted painter / illustrator, whilst her diverse interests led her into the field of writing, publishing numerous books on a range of subjects, including stories and fiction, as well as producing essays and thoughts through her blog and website.
Robin came to Second Life in 2004 during a search for a means of artistic and creative expression after fibromyalgia severely impacted her ability to paint and draw. Within the platform, she found the ideal solution.
Not only did Second Life offer an intriguing set of capabilities for creative expression, it also allowed her to work with her arms properly supported by her desk and chair. One aspect of fibromyalgia is that it can result in severe pain, notably in muscles and joints such at the shoulders, elbows and arms, particularly if they have to be raised for lengthy periods without any support, as is the case with painting. In addition, it allowed her to bring all her years of learning various 2D and 3D graphics applications together as a means to enhance her creativity.
One of the aspects of Second Life Robin always appreciated is the fact that it is a “melting pot” environment that allows anyone to (re)discover their innate creative abilities when the physical world so often encourages us to “self-edit” them away from an early age, in the false assumption that “creativity” is somehow exclusive. This was something she noted with considerable thought in a 2013 World Makers video about her, stating in part:
One of the things that has always excited me about Second Life is that people who have no idea that they are creative come into Second Life and find out that they can create things. We are all taught somewhat early that creativity is “reserved” for the creative types and they are “special” and there are only a few of them – and it’s just not true. All of us can be creative.
– Robin (Sojourner) Wood, via World Makers (2013)
Robin’s store on Livingtree Island – a wealth of creativity and support for residents and creators alike
As a part of this outlook, Robin was always quick to embrace the significant changes we’ve seen within the platform over the years. She was one of the first to adopt mesh into her creative output and to offer tutorials and videos on making quality mesh items. Similarly, she quickly folded materials and other emerging capabilities into her work as and where appropriate.
This outlook also put Robin in a position where she could – with a wry sense of humour – offer truths about the general negative ballyhoo and foot-stomping that so often comes immediately after any change made to the platform.
[With] every single thing that has ever happened in Second Life people have yelled, “It’s the end of Second Life as we know it!” And in fact it is – because it keeps getting better!
– Robin (Sojourner) Wood, via World Makers (2013)
Robinton, Masterharper of Pern (oil, 1980) gained worldwide recognition for its depiction of one of Anne McCaffrey’s most-loved characters from her Dragonriders series. So much so that McCaffrey purchased the original from Robin to hang in her home.
Not only did Robin believe there is potential in all of us to be creative, she demonstrated it in very practical means, notably to her students.
As an accomplished painter and illustrator, her work has graced the covers and pages of numerous books and publications, and is utterly captivating in its style and depth. But rather than just show her works as an established artist, Robin never avoided showing her early efforts whilst learning her crafts, noting that if students and children could see how her work progressed from humble origins to incredibly rich and established pieces she went on to produce, then they might think, “if she can do this, why shouldn’t I?”
Robin’s belief that Second Life is a melting pot also extended to pushing back against the general false dichotomy often found within and without the platform that engaging in it is a matter of “either / or”. From outside of Second Life this can be expressed in views that really, you should be doing something “better” with your time; from within the platform, it can frequently be found in the idea of keeping “SL and RL entirely separate”.
Yet, as Robin demonstrated throughout her time as a Second Life resident, while we might not always see our avatars as being part of us, they are nevertheless a natural conduit of all of our ability to express ourselves and engage with others; our thoughts and outlook inform our avatars, and they in turn inform those around us – just as with our physical world interactions.
Similarly, our engagement with Second life can be as much a part of our physical lives as going out to socialise with friends in a park or through video calls, or going into the garden and spending a couple of hours tending to the flowers there – and be just as personally fulfilling.
Robin and her partner Michael with one of the quilts Robin would design via computer and then create in both Second Life and the physical world, illustrating the reality that the platform can be as positive a part of someone’s life as something like gardening. Credit: Bernard Drax
In addition to her creativity, Robin’s interests were wide-ranging, incorporating Wicca, tarot – she authored two books on the latter and also designed The Robin Wood Tarot, a set of tarot cards published by Llewellyn Worldwide in 1991 -, community and societal issues including LGBTQ rights, women’s rights and politics. She also wrote numerous books, including The People of Pern, co-authored with Anne McCaffrey herself – although I admit my personal favourite being The Theory of Cat Gravity.
Not even a diagnosis of phyllodes tumours (a form of breast cancer which can be particularly aggressive, requiring a full range of treatments – excision followed by radiation therapy / chemo therapy / further revision surgery) initially prevented Robin from creating and supporting others. In particular, she wrote a series of blog posts on her condition in the hope of encouraging those also suffering from phyllodes / breast cancer / cancer to seek treatment in it various forms, and what to expect from it.
Sadly, given the aggressive nature of phyllodes it can have a high rate of recurrence, and this is what happened with Robin, who suffered a relapse in mid-2020, and succumbed to the cancer on Monday, April 19th 2021.
To honour and remember her, there will be a memorial gathering for all who knew or encountered Robin to attend. This will be on Sunday, April 25th, 2021, commencing at 18:00 SLT. Those attending will be encouraged to share their memories and stories about her.
With thanks to Marianne McCann
For those unable to make the memorial, Livingtree Island will remain open for a time under the care of Marianne McCann and Pygar Bu, and an invitation is extended to visit and to follow the luminaria path that has been set out in personal reflection.
To Robin’s partner Michael, their family and all who knew Robin as a relative or friend, I offer my deepest condolences. As Marianne notes, Robin will be long remembered for all of her time in Second Life, and will be deeply missed.
As a mark of Robin’s life and philosophy, I’ll close by including her 2013 interview filmed as a part of the Drax Files World Makers series.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 